does anyone have any info regarding shunt trip ckt bkrs such as; previous posts or a wiring diagram etc. i just recently weired my first resturaunt and the fire alarm inspector says i need a shunt trip on the fresh air makup and on a recept located under the exh hood. any help would be appreciated. thx., ken m

I've seen Shunt trips used for E stops in gasoline stations. They had a panic button by the cashier in case of fire etc. that when pushed sent 120v to the side terminal on a Shunt trip breaker causing the sub panel to de energize . Doesn't meet code in this application as it doesn't remove grounded conductor but... Seems pretty simple to me, apply 120 v and it trips.

The shunt trip breakers are pretty straight forward. They will have grounded conductor wire that attaches to the neutral and either a terminal or a pigtail for the switch leg to energize the trip coil. You will have to run a hot and switch leg to the fire suppression panel. There should be a set of contacts inside the panel ( the wires are usually hanging out of the side of panel and you can mount a j- box over them) There is usually 1 NO and 1 NC contact with a common between the two. Terminate your hot to the common and the switch leg to the NO. Whenever the fire suppression system is initiated, the contacts will close and energize the coil on the shunt trip.

I think they are also available in 24volt. I did a restuarant a couple of years ago. We had to shunt trip the hood fan, make up air fan, and the air handlers for the heating and cooling system. We used 120v. We had to intall a relay so when the fire system was in alarm, the breakers tripped.

Of the resaurants that I have done this is the scoop. If the restaurant has any type of grease or fryer you will have a suppression system. The suppression system(ANSUL is popular) has contacts that are mechanically activated when handle is pulled to suppress a fire.You will need to wire the shunt trip coil in parallel with all normally open contacts. 9 times out of 10 the engineer or inspector will require that all electricity under the hood be shutdown. Now, that being said, a few of the restaurants that I have done will have the HVAC contractor supply and install a ventilation control panel. These are the "cats meow". They do multiple things for you. It would be your responsibility to wire for 2 wire control of any exhausts and intakes. The control panel allows control of all fans manually by the chef but more importantly will automatically shut down intakes and fire up the exhausts to vent the smoke if a fire alarm is activated. A FA control relay with 2 wire control will cover that. One more thing on the shunt trip breaker. If it is speced to drop an entire panel ensure that all lighting circuits are not affected. Remember that if there is more than one contol point of the shunt trip to wire in parallel. Good luck.

I just installed three shunt trip breakers this afternoon for a restaurant/bar. It trips all electrical outlets under the hood and the stage receptacles. Since it is listed as an assembly, the state requires the fire alarm to have a voice evacuation system along with strobes. So it has to kill stage power so that the evac can be heard.

I used 120v trips on my breakers. The alarm contractor brought a 24V relay with a set of N.O. dry contacts to my panels. Ran my control voltage to the common and brought a switch leg back to one of the leads on the shunt breaker. Tied the other lead to the neutral buss. Pull the alarm and out goes the band! Might come in handy if you dont like their music...lol